date:May 13, 2014
add immediately to earnings and generate $140 million in annual cost savings three years after closing. It said it would keep its current annual dividend, but suspend its share buyback program as it works to pay down debt.
Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, which owns about 51 percent of Pinnacle, has agreed to vote in favor of the deal, the companies said. Blackstone took Pinnacle private for about $2.2 billion in 2007, then took it public again in March 2013.
Blackstone, which invested